Adam Le Fondre insists Reading should embrace their heavy workload when they resume their Barclays Premier League relegation battle tonight.

The Royals travel to Aston Villa in what will be their second match of three in eight days, coming on the back of a 3-2 defeat at Wigan and ahead of Saturday's clash with Manchester United at Madejski Stadium.

"Playing in the Championship last year it was Saturday-Tuesday, Saturday-Tuesday," Le Fondre said. "The Premier League is a very demanding league, but it's where we want to be."

Reading were left deflated after Saturday's trip to DW Stadium where Jordi Gomez's injury-time winner denied them a point.

Not for the first time this season the Royals found themselves lamenting the defensive frailties that saw victory slip from their grasp.

"Even if we had secured a 2-2 draw it would have been something to take into tomorrow," Le Fondre said. "But I don't know what happened at the end, we gave another goal away and lost the game. To throw it away was daft.

"When you get to 91 minutes and you're 2-2 away from home then surely it's a great point for us, but it wasn't to be.

"We all defend as a team and we take that burden on our shoulders. It's one to 11 and not just the defence. But we're doing reasonably well. We're scoring goals away from home as a group."

The defeat at Wigan dropped Reading to 19th in the table and came just seven days after they secured their first Premier League victory of the season against Everton. Only Liverpool and Southampton from the bottom half of the Premier League have scored more goals and midfielder Jay Tabb admits defence is the side's Achilles heel.

"We're creating enough ourselves, but we're just giving away too many," Tabb said. "The consolation is that we've been in a winning position in near enough every game this season."